BRONZE
JOHN .
. . Yellow
Jack .
. . the
Saffron
Scourge
. . .
like today's
residents
who watch
the hurricane
tracking
maps from
June to
December,
New Orleanians
then listened
for the
first
whispers
of outbreak.
During
the plague
season,
from July
to October,
as much
as a third
of the
population
evacuated
the city.

New
Orleans
is legendary
as one
of the
most
haunted
cities
in the
United
States
…
probably
in the
world.
To understand
exactly
why
this
is the
case,
one
must
first
understand
the
inherently
different
nature
of the
city,
it's
age,
and
some
of the
events
that
have
forged
it's
character,
make
it unique
among
other
cities
founded
during
the
same
era
of American
history.

New
Orleans
is one
of the
oldest
cities
in the
U.S.
and
it’s
foundation
at the
great
Southward
turn
of the
Mississippi
River
has
made
it a
true
cultural
“gumbo,”
echoing
the
famous
local
dish
of seafood,
meats
and
spices
that
has
become
synonymous
with
the
Crescent
City.
Ruled
in turn
by Spain
and
France,
two
of the
great
cultures
of continental
Europe,
New
Orleans
was,
until
the
time
of the
Louisiana
Purchase,
the
capitol
of France’s
Louisiana
colony.
Perched
almost
literally
at the
gateway
to the
Caribbean,
which
contributed
both
slaves
and
voodoo
to the
gumbo’s
roux,
New
Orleans
has
the
fascinating
allure
and
mesmerizing
heat
of a
tropical
paradise.

And
like
the
great
European
cities
that
fell
before
the
sickle
of
Death
in
the
age
of
the
Black
Plague,
New
Orleans
shares
a
similar
cultural
memory
in
one
of
it’s
longest
nightmares,
the
great
Yellow
Fever
Epidemic
of
the
1800’s.

In
many
places
a brand
of "Creole"
French
remains
the
language
of choice,
and
over
half
of the
city’s
population
proudly
call
themselves
"Cajun,"
or more
accurately
descendants
of the
Acadien
French
who
fled
Nova
Scotia
when
the
French
Colonies
of Canada
fell
to the
British
in the
1760's.
New
Orleans
is also
sprinkled
with
a healthy
dash
of many
other
cultures
including
the
Irish,
the
Germans,
the
English,
cultures
of Asia,
and
the
remnants
of Native
American
cultures
that
thrived
in Louisiana
before
the
European
explorers
ever
set
foot
there.

Bronze
John
. .
. Yellow
Jack
. .
. the
Saffron
Scourge
. .
. these
were
just
some
of the
familiar
names
attached
to this
fatal
disease.
Like
today's
New
Orleans
residents
watch
the
hurricane
tracking
maps
from
June
to December,
New
Orleanians
of that
age
listened
for
the
first
whispers
of outbreak.
During
the
plague
season,
from
July
to October,
every
little
ailment
was
scrutinized
for
the
first
tell-tale
signs
of this
New
World
Plague.
Yellow
fever
is a
mosquito-borne
disease,
and
then,
as now,
New
Orleans
is a
haven
for
these
blood-thirsty
insects.
During
an epidemic,
mosquitos
carry
the
virus
from
human
to human.
Within
three
to six
days
the
first
symptoms
appear
- fever,
headache,
vomiting
and
backache.
As the
disease
worsens,
the
victim
weakens,
with
fainter
pulse.
Blood
in the
urine
and
bleeding
gums
ensue.
Jaundice
also
occurs
as the
disease
attacks
the
liver,
giving
the
victims
the
yellow
color
synonymous
with
the
name
of the
disease.

In
the
worst
plague
years,
from
1851
to 1855,
those
who
could
- sometimes
as much
as a
third
of the
city’s
population
- evacuated
to the
less
urbanized
areas
north
of Lake
Pontchartrain
or to
cities
along
the
Gulf
Coast.
At the
middle
of the
century,
the
mortality
rate
among
those
left
behind
hovered
at a
near-constant
60 percent,
and
there
were
those
who
became
susceptible
to not
only
Bronze
John,
but
also
to smallpox,
malaria
and
cholera.

The
most
terrible
outbreak
came
in 1853.
The
first
victim
was
a newly-arrived
Irish
worker,
taken
to doctors
with
black
vomit
- one
of the
hallmark
signs
of yellow
fever
as it
attacks
the
stomach
lining.
After
a second
victim
died,
officials
followed
the
trail
of disease
to the
emigrant
ship
Augusta,
which
arrived
from
Bremen,
Germany
in mid-May
of that
year.

A
third
of
the
city's
150,000
residents
evacuted
town;
as
the
epidemic
worsened,
more
fled
but
many
of
these
were
already
infected,
and
their
flight
spread
the
disease
wherever
they
traveled.
Containing
it
was
a
nightmare
to
local
officials
at
their
destinations
who
had
the
unenviable
task
of
turning
native
New
Orleanians
out
of
their
cities
and
towns,
knowingly
sending
them
back
to
a
crucible
of
death.
Those
New
Orleanians
who
fell
victim
had
little
left
to
content
them
except
fervent
prayers
and
the
hope
that
God
would
spare
them.
But
the
disease
was
almost
always
fatal
and
too
often,
even
God
seemed
to
have
turned
away:
it
was
as
if
New
Orleans
had
become
the
graveyard
of
a
nation.

Child
mortality
before
the
age
of five
was
staggering
nationwide,
and
the
situation
was
made
worse
in New
Orleans
by frequent
outbreaks
of yellow
fever.

One
of the
most
prominent
features
of modern
New
Orleans
is it’s
numerous
cemetaries,
commonly
called
the
“Cities
of the
Dead.”
Ironically,
the
impetus
for
many
of these
legendary
attractions
can
be traced
to the
height
of the
yellow
fever
epidemics
of the
mid-1800’s.

At
that
time
burial
grounds
around
the
city
were
few
and
woefully
small.
There
were
sections
of the
urban
cemetaries
that
could
be traced
back
to colonial
times,
and
other
burial
grounds
that
had
long
been
filled
or outlived
their
usefulness.
But
Bronze
John’s
arrival
seemed
set
to change
all
that.

As
thousands
died
in the
brief
months
of the
plague
season,
New
Orleans'
already
scarce
burial
space
was
jammed
beyond
capacity.
Many
of the
cemeteries
that
are
now
tourist
attractions
were
once
crammed
with
victims
of the
yellow
plague.
Priests
and
gravediggers
made
noble
efforts
at the
outset
to afford
decent
burial
to each
victim,
but
as the
dead
increased
in number
and
began
to show
up in
ever-growing
piles
of putrefaction
outside
the
cemetary
gates,
mass
burials
were
ordered.
Most
of the
yellow
fever
dead
were
the
anonymous
poor,
and
these
abandoned
corpses
were
the
first
into
the
burial
pits.
But
another
unique
aspect
of New
Orleans
is it’s
high
water
table,
and
inevitably
the
mass
graves
looked
more
like
drained
out
ponds,
and
the
seeping
water
would
turn
soil
to clay
and
wash
away
the
lime
the
gravediggers
shoveled
in.
Not
surprisingly,
there
was
a rapid
expansion
of cemeteries
as they
struggled
to stay
ahead
of the
growing
demand.

On
August
11,
1853
the
New
Orleans
Daily
Crescent
reported
the
scene
at one
of the
cemeteries:

“At
the
gates,
the
winds
brought
intimation
of the
corruption
lurking
within.
Not
a puff
was
not
laden
with
the
rank
atmosphere
from
rotting
corpses.
Inside
they
were
piles
by the
fifties,
exposed
to the
heat
of the
sun,
swollen
with
corruption,
bursting
their
coffin
lids…what
a feast
of horrors.
Inside,
corpses
piled
in pyramids
and
without
the
gates,
old
and
withered
crones
and
fat
huxter
women
. .
. dispensing
ice
creams
and
confections,
and
brushing
away
. .
. the
green
bottleflies
that
hovered
on their
merchandise
and
that
anon
buzzed
away
to drink
dainty
inhalations
from
the
green
and
festering
corpses."

The
sheer
mass
of corpses
often
demanded
quick
and
shallow
burial.
Bodies
buried
only
a foot
underground
surfaced
quickly
during
the
torrential
rains,
exposing
the
public
to the
sight
of their
decaying
neighbors.

Because
of fear
of infection,
funerals
had
been
banned
for
years
at St.
Louis
Cathedral
in the
very
heart
of the
City.
The
Catholic
church
built
a little
chapel
on Rampart
Street.
Called
the
“Mortuary
Chapel”
because
of the
dead
that
were
piled
in it’s
alcoves
awaiting
Last
Rites,
it is
now
known
as worldwide
as the
Shrine
of Our
Lady
of Guadalupe.
It,
too,
now
ranks
among
the
most
visited
sites
in the
entire
city
and
lies
within
walking
distance
of two
of the
oldest
of New
Orleans’
cemetaries,
St.
Louis
Nos.
1 and
2.

During
the height
of the
yellow
fever
years,
many of
the thirty
plus Cities
of the
Dead were
founded
to receive
the earthly
remains
of the
wealthy
and the
poor,
those
of many
faiths
and no
faith
at all.
Even the
poor man’s
plots,
the potter’s
fields
like Hoyt
Cemetary
behind
what is
now Delgado
University,
were not
immune
to excess
of decaying
corpses.
But somehow,
the city
managed
to find
room for
one and
all.

Today
these
Cities
of the
Dead
are
a major
tourist
attraction
receiving
thousands
of visitors
year-round.
They
are
the
backdrop
for
motion
pictures
and
the
subject
of photographic
essays;
they
are
the
repositories
of history
and
legend.
They
are
home
to the
fabled
dead
and,
it is
certain,
to the
restless
dead
whose
last
sight
before
death
called
them
away
was
the
hand
of Bronze
John
closing
their
heavy
eyelids.

Various
sources
place
the
total
number
of deaths
from
the
1853
epidemic
from
7,000
to 12,000.
This,
combined
with
similar
totals
from
the
other
plague
years
brings
the
number
of dead
to a
staggering
total
- and
these
are
only
the
recorded
dead.

It
took
scientists
nearly
50 years
from
the
time
of the
great
yellow
fever
epidemics
to actually
isolate
the
virus
and
tag
the
mosquito
as the
carrier.
New
Orleans,
located
below
sea
level,
surrounded
by swamps,
and
filled
with
aboveground
sewers
and
stagnant
runoff,
was
the
perfect
breeding
ground
for
the
tiny
heralds
of the
Saffron
Scourge.

Haunted
articles
and
photos
regarding
haunted
New
Orleans
cemeteries.
The
Crescent
city
has
several
such
very
Haunted
cemeteries
for
you
to
visit
and
explore.
Rich
in
haunted
history
Cemetery
tours
abound.
Please
consider
visit
a
Haunted
New
Orleans
Cemetery
on
your
next
visit
to
New
Orleans!
You
will
truly
haunt
the
dead
if
you
do!

Metairie
is
entered
in
the
National
Register
of
Historic
Places.
It
contains
diverse
cemetery
architecture,
including
a
Roman
temple,
an
Egyptian
Revival
tomb,
and
the
memorials
of
the
Army
of
Tennessee
and
the
Army
of
Northern
Virginia.

COME
JOIN WITH US NOW AND
EXPERIENCE WHAT CHILLS
AND PARANORMAL ADVENTURES
AMERICA'S MOST HAUNTED
CITY HAS TO OFFER.

HAUNTED
CEMETERY NEW ORLEANS

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